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Gov­er­nors Island Announces Immer­sive Pub­lic Exhi­bi­tion by Artist Jacob Hashimoto

Apr 26, 2018 9:35 am

The Trust for Gov­er­nors Island today announced the next projects as part of its art com­mis­sions pro­gram. This June, the Trust will present an exhi­bi­tion of two mon­u­men­tal works on Gov­er­nors Island by New York based artist Jacob Hashimo­to. Nev­er before exhib­it­ed in the Unit­ed States, The Eclipse and Nev­er Comes Tomor­row col­lec­tive­ly mark the artist’s first major instal­la­tion of pub­lic art in New York City. The exhi­bi­tion opens to the pub­lic June 2 and will be on dis­play dai­ly inside Gov­er­nors Island’s St. Cor­nelius Chapel and out­doors in Liggett Hall Arch­way through Octo­ber 31.

“Gov­er­nors Island’s unique his­toric archi­tec­ture cou­pled with its dra­mat­ic loca­tion in the Har­bor is the per­fect venue for New York­ers to expe­ri­ence ground­break­ing and free pub­lic art,” said Michael Samuelian, Pres­i­dent of the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island. ​“We invite all vis­i­tors to the Island to expe­ri­ence these inspir­ing and dynam­ic works and are so thrilled to be able to wel­come New York­ers into a trans­formed St. Cor­nelius Chapel for the first time in five years.”

Show­cased in New York City for the first time, Hashimoto’s The Eclipse is a mon­u­men­tal work of thou­sands of del­i­cate rice paper kites, envelop­ing view­ers in a tan­gi­ble, yet ever shift­ing fog. Orig­i­nal­ly installed at the Palaz­zo Flangi­ni dur­ing the 57^th Venice Bien­nale, the cloud-like work has been new­ly adapt­ed for Gov­er­nors Island’s St. Cor­nelius Chapel, wind­ing, bend­ing and at times con­sum­ing the archi­tec­ture. St. Cor­nelius Chapel, owned by Trin­i­ty Church Wall Street, will open its doors for the first time since 2013 for vis­i­tors to delight in the piece.

Con­trast­ing the instal­la­tion in near­by St. Cor­nelius, Hashimoto’s Nev­er Comes Tomor­row is a col­or­ful, whim­si­cal over­head out­door instal­la­tion adapt­ed for Gov­er­nors Island’s land­mark Liggett Hall Archway.Constructed of hun­dreds of wood­en cubes and mas­sive steel fun­nels, this high ener­gy sculp­tur­al instal­la­tion plays with the archi­tec­ture of the pas­sage­way, cre­at­ing a vir­tu­al time tun­nel or vor­tex between the Island’s His­toric Dis­trict and new­ly designed park with its col­or­ful instal­la­tion of forms. Nev­er Comes Tomor­row merges Hashimoto’s inter­ests in the sys­tems of archi­tec­ture, his­to­ry and cosmology.

The exhi­bi­tion is the first instal­la­tion of works by Jacob Hashimo­to on Gov­er­nors Island and his first major pub­lic art exhi­bi­tion in New York City.Using sculp­ture, paint­ing and hang­ing instal­la­tions, Hashimo­to cre­ates com­plex worlds from a range of mod­u­lar com­po­nents, includ­ing bam­boo-and-paper kites, mod­el boats, even astro turf-cov­ered blocks. Hashimo­to has been fea­tured in solo muse­um exhi­bi­tions at MOCA Pacif­ic Design Cen­ter in Los Ange­les, the Muse­um of Con­tem­po­rary Art in Rome, Fon­dazione Queri­ni Stam­palia in Venice, the Los Ange­les Coun­ty Muse­um of Art, Schauw­erk Sindlefin­gen in Ger­many and the Wäinö Aal­to­nen Muse­um of Art in Fin­land. He is a grad­u­ate of The School of Art Insti­tute of Chica­go and lives and works in Queens, New York.

“As a New York-based artist, the oppor­tu­ni­ty to devel­op a project on such an icon­ic and his­toric New York site with a quin­tes­sen­tial­ly New York audi­ence like Gov­er­nors Island is an inspir­ing con­di­tion to work,” said Jacob Hashimo­to.

This year’s com­mis­sion is curat­ed by Mered­ith John­son, the Trust’s VP of Arts and Cul­ture. Since join­ing the Trust in 2017, John­son has over­seen pub­lic pro­grams, cul­tur­al part­ner­ships and art com­mis­sions for Gov­er­nors Island. The two works by Jacob Hashimo­to are pre­sent­ed as part of the Island’s new­ly rein­vig­o­rat­ed com­mis­sion­ing series, a pro­gram that presents pub­lic art­works respond­ing to the Island’s unique his­to­ry, archi­tec­ture and geo­graph­ic loca­tion in New York Harbor. 

“Jacob’s del­i­cate and dynam­ic works dra­mat­i­cal­ly engage with the Island’s archi­tec­ture in ways nev­er before seen – pro­vid­ing con­trast­ing­ly immer­sive expe­ri­ences when nav­i­gat­ing between the two sites,” said Mered­ith John­son, The Trust’s VP for Arts and Cul­ture. Mark­ing the tran­si­tion of time between old and new in Liggett Hall’s immense tun­nel and sig­nal­ing things to come in the ethe­re­al naïve of St. Cor­nelius, this year’s exhi­bi­tion is deeply root­ed in the Island’s ever-shift­ing land­scape in New York Harbor.”

Since open­ing to the pub­lic in 2005, The Trust has worked with dozens of artists and arts and cul­tur­al orga­ni­za­tions from across New York City to bring a robust cal­en­dar of com­mis­sions, exhi­bi­tions and events to the Island’s diverse audi­ence. The Trust’s com­mis­sion­ing pro­gram gives the oppor­tu­ni­ty for artists and audi­ences to engage in site-spe­cif­ic projects respond­ing to the Island’s unique con­di­tions. Pre­vi­ous com­mis­sions on Gov­er­nors Island include Rachel Whiteread’s Cab­in, a per­ma­nent work sit­ed on Dis­cov­ery Hill with­in the Island’s park space and Day is Done, a large scale instru­men­tal sound instal­la­tion by Susan Philip­sz. 2017’s Trust com­mis­sioned Rock, Mos­qui­to and Hum­ming­bird, a wind­ing sculp­tur­al instal­la­tion by David Brooks that tells the sto­ry of the Island’s ​‘pre-his­to­ry’ through con­tin­u­ous rock core sam­ples assem­bled in con­trast­ing tra­jec­to­ries, will be on dis­play in Fort Jay through the entire 2018 season.

Gen­er­ous sup­port for The Eclipse and Nev­er Comes Tomor­row is pro­vid­ed by Bloomberg Phil­an­thropies, Cha­ri­na Endow­ment Fund and Trin­i­ty Church Wall Street.

Gov­er­nors Island is open to the pub­lic sev­en days a week from May 1 through Octo­ber 31 from

10 AM to 6 PM week­days, until 10 PM on Fri­days May 25-Sep­tem­ber 14 and week­ends from 10 AM to 7 PM.